Podcast: The Ride - Universal Fan Fest Nights with Paul Scheer

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Paul Scheer returns to discuss the first ever Universal Studios "Fan Fest Nights," a non scary Halloween Horror Nights-type event.  Fan Fest Nights offers immersive experiences like walking on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise or getting yelled at by any number of Back to the Future characters (even obscure ones)! "⁠⁠Unlicensed Theme Park Scented Candles (Club 3)⁠⁠" episode is up at: ⁠⁠Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠ FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride⁠⁠ BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: ⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride⁠⁠ PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST ⁠⁠https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Forever. Dog. Warning. The following podcast may contain combative principles, immersive barrels, and an oppressive amount of Billy Joel. Mike and Scott hit Hill Valley and the Enterprise at Universal Hollywood's new FanFest Nights with special guest Paul Scheer on today's Podcast The Ride, a podcast about theme parks that you guys aren't ready for yet, but your kids are going to love it.

I'm Scott Gardner, joined by Mike Carlson. Are they? Are they going to love it? Oh, I think so. Oh, I think all of the, you know the references to to william frawley and uh we're pushing it with people our age is what i'm saying when it comes to old tv references yeah yeah yeah well and you know the recurring specter of uh the puppet madam that like increasingly i think waylon flowers and madam well and soon you will be the the oldest living person who

remembers this reference yeah uh and and then we're, but I don't know, but also maybe it'll all be so foreign 30 years down the line that there'll be a novelty to that. That's a good point. It'll be the appeal of the whole thing. So the young people will look up to me in a lot of ways. Yeah. Well, you know,

if we get into the nostalgia neck of the woods, which is certainly what we're dealing with today with this thing that we, we got to go to Jason Sheridan Sheridan is not with us, unfortunately. However, we're going to have a good time here because we're going to talk about a really fun thing that we got to go to. The Universal Studios Hollywood has been doing it. They're trying out that we were the guinea pigs for,

the first ever test subjects for. Basically, yeah. We were prepared for danger and brain damage and anything that could have got us. I assumed the shit was going to go down at this thing, but we were safe. We're able to come talk about it now. FanFest Nights was the event.

It's a separately ticketed after-hours event that they have just begun that celebrates different worlds and IPs and fandoms. They encourage costumes and cosplay. The big stars of this show, Back to the Future, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, those are the big things that they're pushing. It's kind of like an attempt at a new Halloween Horror Nights. It doesn't have to be stuck to Halloween.

But very few scares. I would say so, thankfully for me. I was worried about scares in this one zone. Instead, it was nothing but delay. I was, honestly, and this may be, you sat this alone, but delay. I was honestly, and this may be something that's a little unsick, but I was kind of hoping there would be some scares for you. Because obviously, as listeners know, Scott has not done Horror Nights yet. So I was hoping maybe in a way it would be like a little bit of exposure,

would be like a booster, a vaccine. Taking a little bit of the virus. Exactly, for the future Horror Nights trip that you, I think, are going to go on still as of this moment. Well, we'll see Horror Nights trip that you, I think, are going to go on still as of this moment. Well, we'll see. Maybe we'll talk about how this went and then we'll see if we're willing to do it. But, you know, I'd say in broad strokes, a fun time

was had, especially because of our guest who joined us then and who joins us now. An old pal of the show, a good pal of the show, writer of the book Joyful Recollections of Trauma. Soon available on paperback. It's Paul Scheer. Guys, I am so excited to be back. show uh writer of the book joyful joyful recollections of trauma uh soon available on paperback it's paul sheer guys i am so excited to be back back here yes we're back time for fan universal fan nights something that i will tell you in my circle of friends when it was first

announced i got a lot of emails you see this? It's happening because I think Star Trek, you know, connects me to a lot of different people. And it felt like this was going to be a special Star Trek celebration. And immediately, I was excited but suspicious. What could it be? What could a fan night be? Because it really is like building a new experience in Universal. Like horror nights, you know, you got these mazes. I get the idea of it.

But this felt to me like this is a big swing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And how do you possibly just saying Star Trek will be at Universal Studios doesn't answer a lot of questions. There's so much. There could not be more that defines

Star Trek. So what does it all get boiled down to? As a fan of the Vegas experience and much upset that that is closed and I feel like it has just disappeared. There's no, it didn't go anywhere. It's just done, right? There's no Quark's Bar. Well, it's the funny thing is it all still, maybe not anymore, but for a long time after it still did look like Quark's Bar. It just became an unthemed space, including the place where you could go to have meetings about timeshares.

Just all was inexplicably space doors. Yeah, yeah. I was excited about this because I feel like there's a turn right now. All these theme parks are trying to figure out how do we capitalize on the new way that theme parks should be? And I feel like Galaxy's Edge was an attempt to be like,

it's immersive, it's interactive. And in my opinion, all of these parks have failed to capture what I think people like about escape rooms or these like really like seminal immersive places like Sleep No More and stuff like that. Because it has to be corporate and you have to bring in thousands of people, right? Like at the end of the day, it's like, it of people so i always feel like i'm always i'm interested

that they're going in this direction but it seems like immediately at galaxy's edge it was like you bring your phone and you're competing on things you're getting points and then that seemed to not be a part of galaxy's edge anymore they always open very strong so i like this idea that fan nights is coming in a little bit softer, softer and trying something a little bit different. Yes. Not overhyped. If anything under hyped,

I mean, maybe not. I mean, I was certainly aware of it and I'd been to universal studios and they'd put a flyer in my car for it, but it didn't like, that doesn't tell you. They handed it to you though.

They didn't just like sneak it in when you were. No, no, no, they didn't. No, they didn't force it on me. I would just like put it on my windshield like save the clock tower it wasn't oh yeah yeah uh-huh yeah yeah or yes some odd cult is trying to get invested call

this number to sell your car yeah yeah no i know it was all on the up and up um however it really it was just like universal fan fest nights three photos. Yeah. No further information. Then I think more photos were added as the anime properties started to become part of it. Well I was under the impression that it was going to be like each

weekend a celebration of one of the things like there is a Star Trek like night and then there would be a Dungeons and Dragons night. But that's how at least it was

at least I envisioned it when I first had read the information about I thought the same thing yeah and I found it confusing to realize that it was going to be these like disparate fandoms all thrown together that remains kind of a funny thing about it that you're like get ready geeks the ultimate celebration the things you love star trek sure back to the future yeah dungeons and dragons but more different harry potter the general existence of yoshi it's i mean it does it like those are five things people are nerdy about one piece i mean one piece is really like i think that one piece was that late edition that became like we need this yeah to pull the whole thing together because ultimately look i'm a huge star trek fan mike and i text about star trek things on the side over

here like sure you know but that's not going to be i don't think that's going to be fueling the night dungeons and dragons like i feel like i love that movie i don't know how wide that movie goes but the property dungeon dragon big but you are like i feel like the one that movie. I don't know how wide that movie goes, but the property Dungeons & Dragons is big. But you are, like, I feel like the one piece was the one, the biggest thing that pulled it all together. Harry Potter, definitely. But Harry Potter really wasn't doing anything different besides having puppets.

Little shows, yeah. Yeah. Oh, right. We ran into, late into the night, we ran into a dragon that is not usually there. There were, like, three creatures. One, like, a wraparound dragon. One, like, a little, like a little like very cool like new creatures

but it wasn't it wasn't anything yeah and that's already a very immersive land that could and should just be there yes it should always so a lot of the things they did just should be there yeah yeah yoshi could be there always i don't think 100 yeah i don't know only the top tier nintendo nerds know the name Yoshi. Kind of a deep cut. But I will say the, um, what made it hard about Yoshi was like Yoshi was there, but you know,

to see Yoshi, you had to collect stickers on a head, like a headpiece to then get into a giant line. So it was really like a lot of barrier to Yoshi. Uh, you know, like, I mean like you had to spend about two hours

and that was it i think that's part of this night it's like what is this night because i think when you go to a star trek convention it's really fun you see obviously star trek leading and then there's a lot of like sub pops of nerd culture but there are people here that were like i am fully dressed in back to the future i am fully dressed in star wars i am fully dressed in Back to the Future. I am fully dressed in Star Wars. I am fully dressed in Dungeons and Dragons and One Piece. And seeing them mix around, it felt like somebody drew three giant circles of fan bases. It was like, I think this covers all of nerddom. I think in some, I might like Dungeons and Dragons

and I might like Back to the Future. I don't like Star Trek, but I do like One Piece. I feel like if you were to, what do you call that? The Venn diagram? Yeah, Venn diagram. But it did feel like Comic-Con in a lot of ways. There's a big mix of people getting together to do stuff. So you like that?

You're a Comic-Con person. I do like that, yeah. Why did you find that exciting, that it's kind of like a different vibe than day-to-day Universal Studios yes yeah I always I mean that when they play like pop and rock and roll songs when you're walking down their main street I don't always like it it feels different to me it feels like it's a different experience so I did like all of it part of me was like because I I had a lot of people also were like oh I'm going to Star Trek night and I was like it's not just star trek right it's a whole thing but part of me is like oh was it maybe like should they just do a star trek weekend a back to future weekend well that's what i kind of think

but i don't think that the the park can handle that like yeah they need to have everyone going because you know as we saw the star trek experience uh in general was about like a little less than 10 minutes yeah from start to finish i mean yeah you know like uh you know that's not enough for a whole thing yeah but i would say for like a ticketed after hours event like disney charges for star wars night yeah they charge for whatever retro night 90s night they the way, much, much more than Universal is charging for any of this. And all that really is is like meeting Yoshi. Right, it's photo ops, right? So if you factor in the fact that you're getting all the rides at Universal,

and you're in most of them. Which is also an odd choice. The fact that Transformers was not open, and it is open during halloween horror nights and is often one of the best well i was very upset because i wanted i said we you know may as well go on a quick transform yeah of course yeah that's true well in the last we were with paul you you proved the case forever permanently i did a very good job yeah so you wanted to like enjoy your spoils with the right i was gonna gloat the whole time we were on it. See, that was better, right?

Have you seen this part? He tells you he's proud of you. Oh, that really hurt our backs, huh? That was awesome. Kind of fucked you up, but that's what you want is to get fucked up, right? Yes, Mike. You're right, Mike. We know, Mike.

But that's a perfect encapsulation of, I feel like this was a successful night, but that's a perfect encapsulation of the question marks I have of the night. Why close that ride? Because the experiences, the three experiences, are all, I mean, I guess we'll get into all of them, obviously. But Back to the Future is probably the longest. But you need more things to fill it up until two in the morning. It's up until two in the morning. Yeah, it's a lot.

None of us made it all the way. I was like, we all, we were there pretty much at the start at seven. Right. And then like, yeah, I was wondering like, do we, do we go for it? And you like proven that you can still go. I want to prove it. I prove it a lot. Go.

And I can still go. I had to go. I had to pull back. I was upset. I want to go. I want to go, but I don't think I got it done still go. I had to pull back. I was upset. I want to go. I want to go. But I don't think I got it done until two, I don't think. You missed seeing both of us hit our relatively new parent wall.

You missed both of us. I think we saw each other, the light go out of each other's eyes. And that is it. We have no idea. We'll talk about maybe where it happened and why it happened. It felt like, you know, in Mission Impossible 4 when he's got the glove that will work on the wall and it keeps shorting out. I almost was like, no, wait, what? You're this tired right now?

Come on, work. Stay awake. That's a parenting thing that you can't fight against because the other part of it is we're like vampires. New parents, parents in general are like vampires because the that the you're gonna wake up at a given time no matter what like so you can you can burn that midnight oil but he's gonna get you on the other side and like i knew like the next morning i i had to go relieve my my nanny but uh i had an 8 a.m soccer game i had to get my kid to the next morning i was like well this is even if I pushed it,

there's no rest for me. I'm going to be... Then that's going to be a terrible soccer game. It'll be awful. Anything kid, it's a true punishment. Let alone sleepless bed, hungover, never. Hangovers are no longer.

Parenting is the ultimate hangover cure. If you do it if you if you do it to yourself you're out of your mind i did it once was a terrible experience to be hung over as a parent how bad was there like a was there like a leave to vomit was it that bad it was um i remembered distinctly that my wife and i were both just like down on the ground with our kids and being like we're just gonna hang out and play on the ground like we were just very uh it was it was for a wedding and we and yeah we just missed it we again lesson learned never again and uh yeah it just it just knocked us on our ass yeah and it was just like the hangover is just a

is a rough spot but thankfully we didn't have to worry about hangovers because fan fest it was impossible to get a drink i don't understand yes well it was impossible to get food or drinks at this place without waiting for the longest rides were for food and drink and it felt like they staffed it as if no one was coming on that part it's like well i don't think anyone want these drinks like like and i and i did do a lot i did my research i watched a lot of uh bloggers and people that were there had the same exact complaint like everyone was getting off the lines because they're like it was like i'm not gonna wait 45 minutes to get like a themed drink that it probably doesn't even have that much alcohol in it like but it really is a bummer it's

like i wanna i wanna go to yeah you know i want to go to temp forward i want to go eat the dungeons and dragons you know hot brownie whatever it is yes and it's our obligation it's our job quite yeah we have to try the special things and you got to do it but at some point i was like i want a dessert there's literally no line for the basic soft serve yeah the unthemed soft serve you did the same for a churro i got a churro from the front of the mummy ride which has no theming but it was very good apparently not special it's always there but very sad i loved my basic non-ip dessert well you know what i think they should do um and we were lamenting this as well in the back to the future ride we it mainly takes place in the courthouse square um there's no food down there at all yeah and there's

most famously a diner in the courthouse square in back to the future they did recreate that diner in a different part of the park which i also thought was weird but like at the intuit dome where the clippers play they uh every food station is the same so you don't have to like go around for the sushi it's like the sushi is with the so you know like and i feel like that's what they should have done they should have had a fan nights i don't need to like so like when i go get something it's like yes i can get my back i can get my biff my biff biff burrito or i can get my my uh cork sausage or whatever lorraine pasta now i will say that i was uh i was upset with what you ate at the court at Quark's bar.

That was upsetting to me. The way you're looking at it? We're talking about the Cardassian dog? Yes. Yeah, well, and you bailed on that pretty quickly. I sure did. Yeah, well, this is in the genre. This has come up here and there on the show because it seems like it's from a location that has previously been like a Chucky restaurant.

Well, that was a bar. That's the bar area. Oh, okay. No, isn't that food counter also? Because I've gotten caught on that they serve an item called like Chucky's Macassacre and Cheese. They have this straight. It's like impossible to wrap your head. You can like stare at it for five minutes and not know how to say it yeah so it's from and and i know they've also they've trafficked

in this genre of like corn dog that is insane and that's pretty much what you did right do you what was the variety in which it was insane well it was a it was literally visually this big, I feel like. Yes. This thick. Really thick. And not straight either. It felt curved. It felt like an eggplant shape or something like that. Yeah, it had a weird. The old Bill Clinton cursor. Yeah, that's what I thought of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most famous weirdly curved junk in history. Bright red Cheeto dusted Bill Clinton. Well, that makes me think of a different president oh well there's a lot of ways it was a mash-up of all the presidents uh yeah it was like cheeto red and then it was like a giant hot dog or broad of some kind and it was just like deep fried yeah it almost felt like there was like i know it wasn't an inch but almost felt like there was an inch but like an inch from hot dog to deep fry i was watching you eat it and at first shocked to know it was a hot dog or a brat like i was like oh i thought this was maybe corn because it looked

like it looked like a mexican corn and then i was like oh it's not mexican corn and i was like well it must be some sort of dessert it wasn't that and then when you did cut into it it was it was weird because it looked like it was a layer of the earth it was like there was the fried layer and then there was some space it wasn't to get it was like sometimes the corn dog is like together as one it did feel like there was like atmosphere between oh yeah a hollow zone yeah sure right it felt like they like the dark universe takes place apparently oh yeah right it's the down, the hollow earth in a lot of ways. Yeah, I did feel like they maybe like made,

I'm sure they did fry it, but maybe I'm not. Maybe they made the casing first and slid the hot dog in. I don't know. It was odd. It was odd. It was, I will say, as somebody who was most excited to go to Quark's, a very quick theming of quarks like uh or that

place the the mat the chucky place it was it felt like a little slapdash they they did have uh like the fountain drinks had like names on his like cart uh like uh bajoran yeah it was like they threw up orion seemingly on their little label spelled with one zero and one oh so that's a good little easter egg and then it's just. So that's a good little Easter egg. And then it's just green goo. I assume the same green, yellow and red goo they have all day. I think probably.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure what that is day to day. I mean, they feel like they were definitely trying to make it pop, but I don't know if these recipes were tested with much, like, with First Night Out. So maybe this is gonna be a corn dog that's going to get better i don't know i mean might be optimistic i'm also i'm looking at i don't know if you guys

cut this detail but also in that like kind of service station zone next to the space drinks here's there's just this like kind of like weird green like spinach green like a ketchup bottle but with green yes to like beige goo in it and then it's like there's there's just like the goo is pouring out everywhere and in my photo i mean this is like some science experiment gone awry and in the photo the label says don't squeeze too tight okay and then it seems like an explosion has occurred around this is not an appetizer no this is what i will say is that i think that they and i looked at a lot of the food because again, we couldn't get to the food. So I,

I went to try to look at people's reviews of the food and the food they had felt like everything was kind of normal with an aggressive color on top of it. Like in the Harry Potter world, they had churros, but then they had these like yellow, like little bow ties of sauce in the middle of the churros. They also had meat pies, which I don't know if that was specific to the night.

I don't know if they do always have that there. I don't know. It feels like Universal feels like in normal times it has a chicken sandwich, a hamburger, and then a salad with iceberg lettuce. That feels like three things that they have everywhere, except for Harry Potter, I guess guess which has a slightly better yeah but you but like now next to your kardashian dog and i and i see the picture here i wanted to ask you about this they had a very basic thing that didn't feel themed at all to me which was you can describe it here what the the other dish you ordered it was

what is they were fritters and now i'm is that i'm trying to remember what alien race is responsible for these fritters uh vulcans vulcans okay oh it is the vulcan not to be confused with the klingon targ legs thank you i thought about it i thought about getting the klingon targ legs which would be nicely paired with klingon blood wine 22 dollar klingon that's an expensive yeah these drinks are these drinks are going to cost you some cash. Yeah, yeah. Was there strong jealousy and desire? Because you guys are the Trekkies. Blood wine's a big thing, right? That's a kind of itch to try blood wine.

I wanted to get to that Deep Space Nine bar. I really wanted to get in there and see what they had. But then I also equate it with, well, this line is so long. And then the fast... You can get me to spend money if I can get it spent fast. But the minute that I'm, the minute I'm on a line for like 10 minutes,

I'm like, do I really need, you know, the Earl gray cold? Probably not. And then I can walk away very like, I'm like, I've made a business decision.

Yeah. You start to be too logical. We were like, it's not really what Bacardi drinks. This is not really from a Klingon planet. Yes, they just took ingredients and named them arbitrary things that are related to properties we like.

In my case, where it's not a property I care about, I might bail instantly. That said, my seti eel margarita was pretty banging. I really liked it. That was my cocktail. That was solid. I had the Earl Grey.

Oh, my God. I drank something with white claw vodka in a margarita? Wait, that was the... Why was it a margarita if it has white claw and vodka? You could make a margarita, I guess, with white claw. I'm so involved. I feel like I failed some kind of taste test. I'm not a white claw person.

I am. I'm really distressed. I got tricked. I have seen people that have, like... have like you can mix a margarita base I think can really adapt to like because that white claw vodka is not gonna be I guess I'm gonna have that much flavor Yeah, so that the margarita base is probably suck up all like you're tasting all that flavor of whatever they're pouring in There was a ton of other stuff a jalapeno syrup that was really strong but my favorite thing with a little uh gummy seti eel in it just looks like a more of like a little cockroach that that that's what crawled into the ears and to check off here in wrath of khan oh really okay you've seen a

wrath of khan right i think i have seen wrath of khan and my apologies the only one that really resonates and like is loud in my ears at all times is the whales one i very much about the way i think i because this is consistent consistent with my love of back to the future that of all the fantasy worlds that i could ever be sent to where i really want to go is the mid-1980s oh i mean that's the one that gets you there i want to talk about back to the future desperately because by the way like i mean look i would love to have like a fan fest nights and goes to like eddie murphy's uh beverly hills cop and just walk around you know beverly hills or detroit i would do any of those yeah um that's a great idea you know but

uh but the star trek thing to me feels like it has the most uh the most like fan night like you can build a night around Star Trek ultimately, because there's fun rides. There's fun food. There are bars there. It's organic to the place and it can feel different. And I feel like they definitely, they definitely tried to do that.

I feel like the 10 forward bar, I will give a note on the, the, the lackluster enhancement to the area. Like it felt like, it felt like a lot of this was set up to be Instagram museum moments. So it's like if you step out from the frame in which you took the picture, you're going to be a little disappointed.

But that picture is going to look A+. Right. Yeah. Well, we sat and had a drink at the one light-up little counter that they had. And then the reverse literally on my laptop like there you can't even see any Star Wars it's just an awning a star yeah Star Trek it's a

fountain and an awning and the White Claw logo is White Claw canon maybe like by virtue of it being in all of these things it's from space it is from space White Claw yeah okay I imagine some character has a White Claw I was gonna say Kirk defeated White Claw on an early episode. He was able to bring their delicious alcoholic beverages.

It's really the blood of a creature that he slayed. He made love to White Claw's wife. It's a really famous one. You should know it. I will say this in defense of all the Star Trek. I am shocked, even though Star Trek, there's shows on the air, I am shocked that we got something themed to deep space nine and next generation in 2025 right so i am i will say this i am grateful that we got some scraps thrown to us in regards to just a quark sign like who would have thought

we would get a quark sign in this year of our lord i i I believe that that is the Star Trek that, we talk again about what's the age for this. Well, our age. That and our age is that kind of Star Trek. I am on a Star Trek show. You're on Lower Decks. Lower Decks is a very fun show. Very fun show.

It takes place in that era as well, right? So, I feel like that was the right choice to make i feel like deep space nine has had a real like kind of resurgence in in recent years but then the ride itself or the experience we should talk about this like it's there are no rides they're experiences and they are kind of like walk through shows it's not like i think of immersive as you are a part of the show i felt like this was like watching a stage show in which you walked through it right like it was like it was never like being changed in front of you you get to be in the set changes yes and because it was like there and and this is maybe there was we'll get into certain elements of it, but I wanted a little bit more like, okay, we need to do this.

You man that. You do this. In Dungeons & Dragons, we had to touch something. Or I did. I got lucky enough. You were the only one with a task in a room with 50 people. They said at some point, they said like, you, cardiganed wizard. I also...

Oh, just like is in the room with us. Wow, you feel right... Wow, you're flashing right back to Friday night. What is it? They just pop up around you, I guess. I was also... So like the wizard, like, we're like single. Do you want to go? Oh, the wizard must recognize Paul. No, no, but your proximity was just near the ball.

It had to be you. But that was the thing that I wanted. And this is where I feel like these... Paul, no, no, but your proximity was just near the ball. It was near the ball. It had to be you. It had to be you, yes. Yeah. But that was the thing that I wanted. And this is where I feel like these bigger theme parks, they have to fail in a way because you need to get a bunch of people through. So it's like, I thought the actors did a great job. I will say that 100%. Yeah, across the board, every one of these things.

Costumes look great. The way they built the ed we're the red alert is the is the ride right the star trek red alert yes experience we are going to like the star trek museum which is a big part of picard season three yes uh and we are getting to kind of take a tour of the enterprise now there's some logic that i will, like, we're going to a museum, but it did seem like the Enterprise was fully manned for battle, which was also a choice that I was like, oh, okay. These didn't seem like tour guides. Like, the medical technicians, the engineering, like, because we talk about like recent theme park stuff where like it feels like logic. Sometimes it's too heavily like they're trying to logic out a problem.

Right. Like, well, if it's Star Trek, but like really we know the Enterprise is on this new museum. Yeah. That's what canon is now. So it wouldn't make sense if you're just on the ship. But then they also be like, we can't really. I mean, then they'd be like, well, we can't really have Picard. But then you could because in Back to the Future, they embraced the right they just did everything yeah yeah and i want to

be clear because i will and i think we all will point out logic problems in all of these things it doesn't mean that i didn't like it we're still gonna do it that's why i do think galaxy's edge they should just put all the characters together all at once will all the nerds complain yes will they keep going back anyway of course some of them will though even i think some of the hardcore nerds won't care yeah because that's what you want you want the experience and i think that like for me it was a really cool recreation of the enterprise again i and i have yes oddly traveled to very different places like that used to be right by man's chinese theater there used to be a um a like a a place where you could get in like they had the the cheers bar and they had the

the enterprise set that tv museum yes and the ball it's an la fitness yes and it was one of the coolest things ever because you could actually touch these sets and then and i've been on the paramount tour and the paramount tour has elements of the Star Trek sets as well. So I love it. Like, I want to walk around in it that I felt like they did a pretty good job at capturing what that is. Again, in a main giant like maze kind of situation, like we have to walk through it. Yes, they clearly did a good job because for you two who know it and I who do not, I walk into a room and I'm like, there's a bunch of barrels in this room. That's what it is. It's barrels.

It's so many barrels. The barrels, anytime you're in like a shuttle bay, there's all these barrels in Star Trek The Next Generation. I don't know. They just were like, we need something to fill this space out. It's such a great prop designer going, we have a big bay. We need more barrels. But yeah, I loved all of's such a great like prop designer going like we have a big bay we need more barrels again and uh but yeah it was i loved all of that i felt like they really treated us really good as my character is the lead engineer on uh you know chief engineer i should say on the on the lower deck show i was excited to be there and i wanted

to you know i wanted to really raz that engineering crew uh you know but actually play your character in real life that's why i grew this mustache just for uh fan nights uh to match bill for an attempt to be recognized you asked us to point at you constantly notice it notice touch the ball in dungeon of dragons i can touch something here whatever you want i'm good at i have experience i will say that of the three experiences that were that we experienced like that was an original idea the star trek red alert um that i thought was executed at least from a point of view if i understood what was happening yeah like uh from beginning to end and i was not confused uh which was good um although it felt slightly lackluster in the sense that you're like, oh my gosh, an alien is attacking.

And you're like, get into battle positions. Ship is going down. And can I give a spoiler? Can we talk? I think so. Yeah. And then the result is they were friendly. Yeah.

That's one of those nice ones. Once we talked to it. Yeah. They were cool. I was also torn about that because that is a classic Star Trek resolution. where you like learn a lesson that of course the alien oh it's peaceful like what are you doing worried about like this could be something that you're overreacting to but as a fan of haunts and scares i wanted the fucking borg to burst through those turbo lift doors yes scare the shit out of us and you wanted me to piss my pants i wanted you to piss

your pants and i wanted to be assimilated into their collective well now here's the thing that i couldn't quite figure out they have built this ride they have built a version of this ride in vegas like we talked about yeah why not just take that they had the borg they had the things it's like you i mean not like not the actual pieces but just take that story because that story is a really fun story. You're just a part of an assimilation. And then, you know, you got the guys with phasers. Oh, yeah, we did it.

We figured it out. And then, you know, you know, I wanted some more stakes, too, because really at the end of it. And again, no flack to this captain who did a great job. But she's like, yes, we nailed it. It felt very like like like this is the way it was written like she did say yes and like kind of like like you like we do one of the pump this and i was like oh i didn't feel like a star i get what you're saying because it did it is a star trek kind of story but it just felt a little lackluster like all right bye see you later it felt as easily

solved as turbulence on a plane yes like oh they, oh, well, they warned us. And then a minute later, it was fine. Yeah. And that was it. And yeah, that was my only complaint about it is I wanted some danger. Yes, I agree. I wanted danger as well. I mean, I wanted to live there. That's also the thing.

It's like, I want to like, can I sit in Riker's chair? What do you think? Would it be OK if I? Right. You want it. When you get that close to the bridge, it's like all you want to do is touch it and see it and feel it and and to their credit they do have a great photo op where you can sit in picard's chair but i mean yes it's out by the but it's also yeah if you zoom out too too wide you see the sign for water world the lives yeah it's also like i understand logistically

they did give us more than you would get in a normal maze. 100%. Of all of these things. Is that true? Not having done mazes yet. Yes. In terms of getting ample time. Because Dungeons & Dragons, for sure, a lot of time in every room.

Yeah, you motor through Horror Nights maze. That's what I've been telling you. You should do that one first because you were in a single file line. You were just rolling. I want to make a very strong case to not bring you to horror nights first but to bring you to uh the world's biggest horror maze which is uh maybe like 20 minutes up near calabasas which is in an abandoned mall it's the biggest yeah and that is one of the most fun me at abandoned mall that one is one of the most fun experiences i've ever had because they work that right level of people to scare ratio where because sometimes in universal, it's a line and it's sort of like you've seen the scare already.

And if you're if the timing works out, you will be scared. But sometimes it doesn't work out like it. But this I felt like because it was in groups, we had our own experience. I really like that. We were like, liked that we were in the medical bay. We were in engineering. We went as a group. It wasn't at our own discretion. We were going with the story.

Yes. It would have been a real bummer if we just marched into the bridge and then marched out. But it did feel like, come on, isn't a kid dressed as Q going to pop in here and try to put us on trial for something? Yes. Like, in a world of villains, in a world of villains and a world of characters

to have none, to have zero recognizable characters and villains, it was a bummer to me. They said the blue face guy, like, should Conjuring show up with a big fake rubber chest

like Ricardo Montalban in the second, or in Shredder Con in the second or i mean by the way but you just said it perfect like you could put a guy a guy can pretend to be john delante we're going to talk about in back to future there was a guy there they recreate everybody in back to future so just put a hat and a red robe on somebody big i'm q and i'm challenging you all we need to figure out this puzzle and then you know let them figure out the puzzle, but we feel part of it. Look, I would have done it for free. Just let me be cute. When everyone's chasing the same finance positions, chartered business valuators stand out.

CBVs are an elite group of trusted professionals doing everything from deal advisory to litigation support to succession planning. CBVs are a preferred hire in investment banking, private equity, consulting, and many other areas, with the potential to earn seven figures at the pinnacle of their careers. If you're starting your career in finance, check out cbvinstitute.com slash becomeacbv. Your future self will thank you for it. This is, you know, when we're complaining to some degree, even though I really enjoyed a lot of this, I do think that I bet if we were to talk to people, they would be like, look, here's the list of what we couldn't do with this maze. Here's what Paramount said we could do.

Here's what they said we couldn't do. Right. And I do wonder if it was like you cannot have somebody playing Picard. We just will not allow it. Right. Universal owns Back to the Future. So maybe there was a lot more room. Right.

To recreate things. Do stuff. But it seems like they're leasing it out. They definitely are. Look, again, this all being said, I loved that experience because it was fun to – like that was an immersive environment that was very familiar. So you got to walk within a thing that I thought was really, really fun. Yes.

And it's just – I want it – the idea of it going away is upsetting to me. Now that I know it's there, the carpeting is there. I can walk by the panels. I love it. I saw it. Take a picture of that panel. Tear down Hogwarts as far as I'm concerned. That's my Hogwarts is that Enterprise D.

Well, by the way, so the whole way home, I was thinking about this to give you like an insight on where my mind is going like i i i was like you know what would be awesome is if they built a really kick ass escape room that recreated the bridge of the enterprise right and that and you have to solve mysteries and you get these communications on the screen and you have like somebody has to be the captain like it would be so much fun there There is something. I think escapology, is that the,

cause that's the one moving into universal at city walk. Okay. Is one. I think there's have a start. It's not that enterprise D though. Okay. I do think there is a Star Trek escape room somewhere. I would love like, why not?

Why not? Like, well, cause that's, I think that's what you, that's what I want. I want to be like in that bridge. Touching.

With a problem to solve. Yeah. Go to warp. You want to go to warp you want to do this which is not yeah in the malay falcon it's like this you just slide up on a touch screen yeah that's what data would do you're saying so it's it's a less exciting gesture but that's more exciting but if you're the captain you can also like oh you point captain you point like this then you do this and then like if you're in counselor troy's chair and you have something you can interpret things because she's a beta so she can you're talking about like that's

an eight person escape room because yeah that's true you know you have enough positions to actually be effective in the escape room i mean whatever this is just like free ideas for if it doesn't exist yeah it does feel like it should exist i people go nuts for it yeah yeah yeah and by the way i think what is what's been itching the back of my head is um for whatever reason my instagram account has been getting a lot of john wick uh yeah the continental just opened in vegas and that seems incredibly interactive oh it's a whole immersive like bar and and they don't even allow cameras in certain things, and you get to really

jump into the John Wick-iverse. Suit guy, everything. By the way, if that comes on the thing, I will gladly make a trip to Vegas with you guys to check out the content. Could we all pair this? Because Universal's opening the Horror Maze in August. I'm already adding things to that

trip, perhaps. And Summer league is happening in August. So that's a, it's great for me. I can make a, I can make a real case for this or, or another, another pitch is do it anytime. That isn't August due to immense,

horrible, that's a bummer. You're right. But then backstreet boys, it's sphere also. Oh, I would love to see that. So I'm,

there's a lot of things throwing in this pile. If we're around in it, I mean, I know there's a lot of air conditioning around. can as long as we can leave the buildings which is fine we're talking about all indoor activities yeah as long as we don't make the mistake eve anderson made of walking from a casino to our live show in august no no i don't know what i walked outside of the uh the nba summer league and just waiting for an uber was awful and i didn't even walk i just was waiting and that's i guess we

don't have to because even i went to liberace's house when we were in vegas as well which we really never did an episode on we just talked a little bit at the live show i feel like we could have dug in a little more on that i know well every comment section in every episode we've had since liberace this is and this is the people who want the Waylon Flowers and Madam comedy. That's true. That's true. Where do you land on the, as somebody, I can attest that the last, maybe ever since the last episode you did, I think Waylon Flowers and Madam has come up every single episode. That's easy.

And by the way. It's an infestation on the show now. At this place, I mean, we need to keep it alive. We need to tell, we are the storytellers. We need to keep that story going. Yes, that's what I feel as well.'s what i feel as well if we don't have the griots or whatever they are all right madam escape room you're in madam's dressing room and you have to escape before she makes too many body jokes your ears will start burning that's a room in the future podcast the ride immersive halloween horror night space and i to make. With a madam operated by you.

From behind one of those dressing room walls. By the way, as you're talking about the madam room, I'm thinking another because we were talking about this too. Universal fan nights, they'll probably change it every year. Muppets would be a great one. Go through the backstage of a Muppet show. Is Disney going to let them do it?

If they're not going to do something better, although we keep hearing maybe someone's going on with like i might there's a lot of say yeah there's rumors of more well obviously we know the roller coaster the yeah yeah yeah but i i know it'll be that they want to screwed universal i feel like they're not in a right right yeah i'm not saying it's a good idea i played ball because paramount isn't playing ball with anybody. They're fucking with 60 Minutes and all this stuff. But I feel like Star Trek is like a property that can be – you're right, but there's no Paramount Park, right? Yeah.

And I guess like Netflix, they must have had to make some sort of deal with Netflix too, right? Or maybe not because One Piece can exist outside of Netflix. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who owns them. There is precedent for Star Trek at Universal because they had the experience of the tape. You get a tape. Oh, yeah.

It's the return of Star Trek. While you're buttering up Paul for different experiences, this might be your best chance to get a buddy to go on the cruise. Oh, the Star Trek cruise. One of the things I really wanted to do. Have you ever seen this? i've heard of this because like there's a star trek cruise and it looks like the biggest like just messy party yeah ever well see maybe i could get on there and get some vip i am looking at a list of people that includes tony newsom and noah wells somebody's gonna fish somebody who is not your wife is going to fish to be a plus one Johnny Newsome and Noel Wells. Yeah, yeah. You could get a hookup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eugene has been on there.

Somebody who is not your wife is going to fish to be a plus one. And I hope that maybe she'd be amenable to this. We know somebody who works on the cruise from Orlando. Oh, really? Oh, is that right? Maybe she still does. I'm not sure. But you got Shatner this time.

You got Frakes this time. It's almost sold out. Do we need to buy it right now while we're recording? Maybe we should buy it right now. Let's do it. Let's right now yeah my guy armin yeah do they fly them in because i've heard rumors that uh sometimes the helicopter will come to the boat they don't they don't do the whole time whoa they like helicopter shatner in and out yeah and we know he's amenable to uh you know little little craft little aircraft such as going into space right uh yeah a little shuttlecraft you know, little craft, little aircraft, such as going into space. Right. Yeah, a little shuttlecraft.

You know, you put a little, yeah. He's going to Blue Origin out of there. Special arrangement for him. I just watched the clip, if people haven't seen it, of Shatner, like, haunted by his experience. Oh, I love that. It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre.

He's haunted. He's trying to express to Jeff Bezos what he's seen and what he's learned about living, what humanity. And Bezos just pops a cork on champagne in the middle of his like profound statement it could not be a better encapsulation yeah who cares let's party now um but let's get into the meat of the thing which is I mean I think the one thing that everyone says universally uh no pun intended is the best part is the back to the future hill valley yes yeah

yeah destination hill valley is that the official naming mechanism of it so this does the thing that a lot of mazes have done at horror nights over the years where you board the uh world famous universal tram and it takes you down to the lot and drops you at this particular part but and i will say before you even get to that we we have the Save the Clock Tower lady. Oh, that's right. She is at the base of the thing. And what I found so interesting about the Save the Clock Tower lady

who looked great and was doing her part, people were actually giving her money. And I was like, where does that money go? Because people were putting money in the Save the Clock Tower. And I saw real money go in there. Maybe she got it. Hey, look, not bad.

That's for, there should be more opportunities for tips i can tell you that during the training having been a tour they tell you people might offer you tips turn it down right i did like one times i guess some one time somebody gave me a 20 i took i look when i worked at the container store which is filed for bankruptcy i'm a little worried about oh no ptr curse it's a ptr curse Talking about it for eight years, finally destroyed it. They would tell you if someone insisted twice, you should take it. But that's the only time. At Home Depot, when I get my Christmas tree there, they can't take tips.

But then they kind of show you how you could just pop it into their little thing. So you gotta kinda treat them like, you have to kinda slip it into it, which is a little bit more uncomfortable, honestly. It's also like a little strip club or something. Yeah, I know, I was like, all right. Here you go, this is for you. Get yourself something special. But continue, so yes, we get on the tram, we go.

Yeah, it's one of these experiences where the tram takes you down somewhere, but in this case, it takes you to the real courthouse square where scenes from all throughout the trilogy were filmed. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Although is any of three there? I could be wrong. Oh, yeah. Are there any proper courthouse square? I'm not sure. But you know what it is. Right. But yeah, you know, it's a location you get to see on the tram tour, obviously, but I don't think they've ever done anything where you get out and walk around other than for VIPs.

So I was excited about this because this is one of the only areas that I'm super nerdy about and I've always been. And I've gotten to when I was a guide, we got to do like a tour down there and I ran around. I stood under where the Jaws hologram comes out. And then one time I had a general meeting on the lot and I realized that I could exit via the path that made me have to drive the path of the DeLorean, which I did with so much gusto. I think I turned on the score. I like found it on Spotify,

blared it as I went past where the lightning strikes. I like sang it real loud. I super dorked out. So getting to be there and like hang out for a long time. I sang it real loud. I super dorked out. So getting to be there and hang out for a long time. I love that. I love that square. These are playing with big parts of my emotions. I want to be in that town square.

I love that it was crowded, but not overly crowded. I think that where Star Trek brought you in in groups, this kind of allowed a crowd to kind of form. Now, for better or for worse, we could talk about it. But what I did like is it didn't feel like this was a theme park-based area because you're walking on grass, like real grass. That's a functioning part of the lot. That's not a... That they use a lot we're talking about throughout that it's like they and it it

in some cases we were being a little nitpicky of like it doesn't look exactly like in the movies but part of that is because they do redress it and use it all the time well then that was and and like that's what i like i loved and hated about which was like, it was so cool to be there. And there's, you know, everything. But the theming was like the, like someone going like, oh, we can make this look a little bit like the Back to the Future. Like it wasn't the exact stores or things, but it was like, like the, like it felt adjacent to it but then i'm also like but you have all this stuff right don't you like but i guess i can't really decorate it fully and it all i'm sure it's another thing where somebody would be like we wanted to do it

right it wouldn't give us the 50k but what is the reason why the sign would not be right fan night that's exactly what a fan is going to pick apart immediately that hill valley sign i mean by the way yeah that kind of drove me the most crazy because i was like that to me is like either have the exact recreation of it or have the original one and put some because they did actually have like biff's car and they had like they those were like real the real cars but they had they blocked off so you couldn't touch it. Lion Estates billboard. Yeah. But that was a recreation of something that wasn't a replica of it. And that was bumming me out. Like I was like, I want,

give me the thing that is the, like you have that. You're so close. You're so close. It is. It is interesting. Cause I think, I think because like it being the actual place they shot,

the movie is amazing to get to do a fun, immersive thing there. But then the limitations of it being a working studio also hurt. There's probably various reasons why certain things aren't the way they are. Probably if they do a recreation of this for maybe Orlando, maybe UK, it'll be what we're talking about. It'll be more perfect than this is even able to be for some reason. Well, because they're building it from scratch, and the courthouse will look exactly right. It does look like, I don't know, it looks like more of a standard city hall kind of, which I don't blame them super. You could feel the vibe in the space.

This was, I would have loved to have spent more time there. I think the issue that I had with it was, so where Star Trek was a unique experience that was unlike anything from the films this was a chance for you to walk around uh and interact and put that in quotes with scenes that are happening from the first film right that's what's like that's really what's like they have multiple scenes happening simultaneously so it has like a sleep no more vibe you can follow one character into another character you can go over here and you'll see how they all line up and i actually thought that was a really cool idea the only thing missing for me personally was i would have loved to have seen marty mcfly from

back to the future 2 skulking around to be uh some of the things happening but that's the other hiring tons of martys for this experience then yeah make one of them just put the black hat around and try to be avoided and not answer your question yeah maybe they just assume there would be enough people dressed as marty with the hat on right they feel like we're so many martys that is a really funny aspect that you're trying to keep your eyes peeled for marty mcfly and you keep seeing the vest there he is no there he is no that's a woman like like probably i think at any given time because i watch videos of it and then being there live like i think there are 13 marty vests and then different marty modes i think i saw a leather jacket marty there's a bunch of different docs yeah every time there's there's there's a bunch of jennifer's running

around well yeah that's the that's the one costume that i think a lot of people docs. Yeah. There's every type, there's a bunch of Jennifer's running around. Well, yeah, that's the one costume that I think a lot of people can put together very quickly. Like, people may not have, like, you know,

a Klingon costume at the ready. Right, right. But you have a, you can put together a Marty McFly costume pretty easily. Sure, sure.

It definitely felt like Rick and Morty, like the amount of Rick, I mean, Rick and Morty is based on the future, but I mean, like having like

multiverse Marty's running around. There were like 50's like where's Waldo of oh yeah well as if like knowing that that's like a kind of a fulcrum point in in the uh in the space-time continuum that's a good way to think about it if I were to do it again is that like since that's an important date and time what if too many Marty's have shown up for too many reasons yeah now there are 13 all with different tasks and goals. Yeah. Bunch of docs too. I don't like, I'm just not into cosplaying necessarily unless it's for like a show or

something. Yeah. But I would be almost like if we go back of next year or whatever, I'm like, maybe I dress like Marty too. Maybe we all just like Marty. I'm down to dress like Marty. Everyone should be Marty. Well, I do love that.

I love Halloween. I'm not Halloween Horror Nights, but I love the Halloween thing that Disneyland does, like marty i'm down to dress like marty one should be marty well i i do love that i love halloween i'm not halloween hard nights but i love the halloween thing that disneyland does where you can dress in costume i think it's really fun and i love the idea that people could dress in costume for this it felt like it made it a lot more fun you've created a cool indoor retreat now let mighty pine provide the quiet and energy efficient comfort you can depend on with a range of innovative cooling solutions like the Carrier Infinity heat pump that delivers premium home heating and cooling performance. Learn more at MightyPineHVAC.com You make it a home. Let Mighty Pine make it more comfortable. Rebates, incentives, and financing are available for a limited time. Mighty Pine and Carrier, turn to the experts.

I will say that, you know, as you're going on this tram ride down, it was the first night that we were there. We could tell that the tram driver or the announcer was kind of still figuring out the script and kept on really imploring us to dance. You're going to get down there. That got said so many times. And you're going to dance. Make sure that you feel the us to dance you're gonna get down there that's said so many times and you're gonna dance make sure that you feel the music to dance i was like i don't want to dance i also

don't feel like i don't feel as back to future as like a dance thing but i think that they were like we have a live band there and we want to make sure it's okay for people to feel like they can dance because that town square gets very crowded very quickly. They did, again, it's a tight square, and they have this, I think they messed up two things in my opinion, which is like on the left-hand side, this very cool thing. It's the spinning license plate and the flames from the tires as the DeLorean is gone, but it's going into the movie theater, which is not there.

It's just a poster of a movie theater. And that was awesome. That was really cool looking. It's lit so well. I've seen multiple people's photos of it, all of our photos. It looks so great. That's such a victory.

That cool line of flames. That was beautifully designed. Now on the other side, now again, you only have a certain amount of space. The other side, they built, and this is classic Universal, they built carnival games. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Nothing that has ever been in the Back to the Future. Everything, detailed. I know I was nitpicking about, oh, the signs aren't the right, whatever. But carnival games were never a part of anything in Back to the Future.icking about the, Oh, the signs aren't the right, whatever, but carnival games were never a part of anything in back to future. And they, except in the old West,

right. When he like learned, he does a shooting gallery and he learned how to do it at seven 11. That's the only, that's the only time, but that's not the fifties. That's not where we were. And so they have this carnival game thing set up to win something,

but that's so tightly packed into a picture of photo op in the delorean with einstein not a fake einstein like a dog a real dog real dog there they cast einstein which is blew my mind as well uh that dog didn't seem like that that seemed like a a wild choice to be like we're gonna have a dog here to pose for a lot of photos yeah dogs are comfortable meeting hundreds of people at a time yeah quick succession with max at the green and during grinchmas you see so that's so that's yeah that's true they have experiences but they must have tons of einsteins there must be a whole bunch of cages well that night they had four martys i saw multiple things with different martys

i liked our marty a lot uh marty was good yes yeah yeah but that's another one of those rick and morty paradise we've entered a world where there's so many Einsteins. What are they all here to do? I would love to see the back. The kennel is great. There's a bunch of... Show me the Einstein room. One Einstein doesn't want to go on. He's like feeling... I can't do it. I don't like this Marty. I don't feel

the connection to this doc. Now, the thing was I feel like they could have opened up the experiences a little bit wider because when you walked over to that carnival area, you immediately got in this. It was like carnival, the only place for food, non-themed food, which is also odd. Yeah, eat a regular ice cream bar in Hill Valley in 1955.

Yeah, and it's like, why are we skimping out on the theming here? Just call it Biff Water. Give me something. And then you have this like recreation of doc brown's lab not his 1950s house but his 1980s house with the delorean inside and that's where einstein is all there's all the isn't there something with all the speakers i missed that that was entirely that's posted that the that's where einstein the amps blown okay okay so that was einstein was like that was like a little tableau but it was so hard

because once we got into that area like people are come on move around it's not a we got ushered by a universal place but it's like but you've literally walked us into a dead end where there's three major things going on including a biff who is um harassing people at the carnival games that is a good move that he's trying to mess people up. I like that. He yells at people to get them to mess up when they're trying to hit the buzzer. I like that. I like that a lot. I like the actors in that were fantastic.

He was running around yelling at everyone. Yes. And you could really hear him. I would say we'll probably get to it, but some microphone issues would be good because sometimes you wouldn't be able to hear certain performers in different places. It's outdoor, and they're getting on the courthouse steps and and i guess they want the the community of this gather around and gather around and you'll

hear it now i don't know how you guys feel about this but when you arrive you you might arrive at the it's on a cycle right it's on a loop all the way to the end of the first movie we I think arrived actually at a great time we arrived at the beginning of the story but I talked to some people who arrived at the end

and then you're kind of waiting for it to recycle again I didn't know how you guys felt about that we had a great experience we saw it kind of play out perfectly I almost didn't realize the extent to which the events of the film would start playing out i do have the nerdy objection of they tell you you watch a video on the way down with a uh fake doc brown something that we've always uh enjoyed uh a guy playing doc who is not christopher lloyd and i will ding the one thing about that is

like his background clearly cgi he's in front of like giant like uh satellite dishes from the movie contact like it's like like i'm like oh yeah this is why would he ever be here like just put him in the backdrop of his his lab like i mean like why are we putting him outside in front of satellite dishes like like those little choices are like, what? You know me. My famous experiments with satellites. With time travel satellites. You built it on the prop.

Like, just put him in front of a clock. Give me something. Oh, yeah. Wait. They've recreated his lab. Why don't you film him in his lab? And I believe the guy we saw on the tram, we happened to that i think it was the same guy i think that night i think oh who was running around yes but anyway that was like i was a little like whether like that's

where i feel like there are certain and because they clearly own all the footage they do everything they can even take a screen grab of the backdrop and just have them stand in front of it like it doesn't yes something recognizable from the movie yeah there's a lot of weird little nitpick also the fact that like how are we getting to the past we were bemoaning the fact that they why don't they just call it a time tram yeah we're on the time tram we'd be so excited we'd be saying time tram non-stop this whole episode and and all you need is like and like they go this time tram there's some and again i get it i i love this part i but it's simple like these are the little tweaks that also feel like it's a first year thing it feels like we're trying to figure it out but yeah they're like the time tram travels so fast you

don't even realize that you've time traveled you know what give me two strobes we'll walk by go like this give me like a like a little stro little stroke passes we're driving by oh that's right right when you pass by the big mannequin of ted yeah right after ted just flash some lights at us ted should have like some like weapon uh kind of like a time travel weapon oh i love that shoots a light at the tram as you go by him on the lot and then you try like right it's pretty close to where you end up make ted part of it we know we obviously know already that Doc Brown is part of the Seth MacFarlane universe because he appears in the Western. What's that called again? Once Upon a Time in the West.

Million Ways to Die in the West. How the West was horny or something. I don't remember what it was called, but Doc Brown's in it. So Doc Brown's allowed to be in Seth MacFarlane things. Yeah. Have Ted do it. It just felt like that was like, again, we're time traveling and one of the coolest things about this movie is that when you're in the car,

you know, the lightning, you're time, like, so we are not getting that experience. Now, meanwhile, we get that experience in Star Trek when you're on, we get the, we fly in warp speed,

we get the turbo lift feel. They give you a little mist. Yeah. Which at least, you know, works. Yeah, yeah. Like to kind of, that was super? They give you a little mist, which at least works. Yeah, yeah. That was super cool. If you go through mist, you do transform or you teleport. I like a mist. It's something very cool in Epic Universe.

You got a great light and a great mist coming your way over in the Potter zone. It's the best light slash mist thing I've ever seen. Yeah, very good mist in Epic then you know just push through that but we're in hill valley it's awesome it's not exactly right but then i think look we need to be brought in as advisors on this because i think where we're pitching here is not even right giant like yeah we're no it's the littlest tweaks that would just like tie it all together because everything there's a lot that is great here, performers especially. The band is great.

They're doing the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Great. Yeah, absolutely. And the way it all times out where a character might be talking to you and then on stage at the perfect time a minute later to make story points happen. But if you're going to call it fan night, here's a place to come and geek out about a property you you love why are you going to tell me on the way down you're going to the night where doc discovered the flux capacitor but then you get there and it's all the events of the night that

marty traveled back to the future those are different nights but why would this under the seed dance be going on on that that's not it's when doc bumps his head and gets the well this is a and but when you first meet Doc, or when we first met Doc, he just said this morning, he came up with, he fell off the toilet. But then the movie

kind of progresses. I know. These are like, they're like six days apart, aren't they? It's not very far apart, is it? I don't think so.

It's like, it's enough time to give Marty time to like hang out and have to get his parents together. As a nerd, I would have liked to have seen the recreation

of the table made of like the exact replica of the town square where like doc does his like yes oh he had had some weird like if his oh that's that's one missing thing if his like little workshop had been something that you could check out I just look at Lorraine comes in and they have to cover it up really fast and you have to help cover it because the DeLorean is nowhere to be seen i mean there's a photo op delorean but the like the whole thing culminates and obviously marty going back to the future yeah the way they kind of do that is everything is being acted out until the final

back to the future moment where it is then projected on the clock tower very cool they recreate the lightning from that moment that was awesome that felt like amazing yes and then culminating in when lightning strikes they represent that with a firework going off from very cool courthouse yes which i don't think anybody expected i don't think we saw it coming i've read get there before midnight because past midnight for neighbors they aren't allowed to do it so do it do it first thing you go which by the way this is going between now and may 18th if you're in los angeles you're going to be in los angeles yeah yeah get to the fan and want to check it out which i do i do recommend despite all these nitpick nitpick nitpick i had a great time i know this is awesome i will say the other thing that made me slightly uh

uncomfortable was uh was seeing them play out the Biff sexual assault scene. That is, it's an interesting moment because everyone's got their cameras out. Oh, now everyone's filming it. Yeah, and you're watching this great moment of George, you know, hey, you get your damn hands off her. And then Marty's like with us in the crowd going like, yes, yes, and we were watching Marty while Biff

and while that interaction is happening, he's like looking at the picture, like he's fully in it acting like, yes, yes. And we were watching Marty while Biff and while that interaction is happening. He's like looking at the picture like he's fully in it acting. Yeah. Like, yes. OK, this is great. I'm going to go in. I'm going to play the music. But it was funny to watch that moment, which is a great moment in the movie.

But it is funny to be like, what are we supposed to? We're supposed to be interacting here. But they told us to dance, but they didn't tell us to stop any assault. We should all be getting involved. We should probably each and every one of tell us to stop any assaults yeah we should all be getting involved we should probably each and every one of them and that's a fan dream we've all had i think is to prevent that yeah we want to be the famous movie assault yeah yeah that's all a hundred people all at once hey you get your damn hands off and that's what i was missing i do want like and that i feel like this is all like a great baseline of where we could do it.

I would love to have had some more like like in fan like we were watch again. We were watching a show. And yes, I think you could interact with them. And I and I feel like the we did. We interacted with Gordy Wilson, the Goldie Goldie Goldie Goldie Goldie wilson who is going to be the next mayor and he was great because he doesn't really have to do anything in the story of back to the future no but just walk around he tells you about some things yeah and i was like can i maybe i should ask if there's food anywhere because he's dressed like a this was some of my uh situation is like okay go talk to these

characters and i know who he is and i know he's going to be the mayor. But the people ahead of me had already spoiled it. They'd just done the thing of like, are you interested in politics at all? Oh, yeah, mayor. Like, you're obviously just trying to set him up to say it, which the actor said, great, it's just like in the movie. But then I'm like, why am I talking to this guy who cleans up counters at a, like, in story,

there has to be a reason I can talk. Because he's's walking around town square he's not even in front like again it is a crucial part of the story like a lot takes place in that shop that's not there that shop is not there uh and so he's just wandering around in his outfit out and about on this night of insanity i guess, yeah. They also made an odd choice of giving Biff a friend that was not dressed like any of his gang. Like, give me the 3D glasses, give me Casey Szymansko.

Billy Zane, Zane, Zane. Yeah, I mean, they gave Biff a guy in a yellow cardigan. That's not a recognizable character from the movie in my opinion yes he seemed he had a fun lackey energy yes he was great if you're nearby it happened you get to watch them like break up yeah to watch him be fired as a lackey and that's a fun moment to get to see um now the highlight of it all for me for sure was we're gathering to watch uh uh marvin barry uh and the uh so like the set is beginning the set that we know is going to culminate in uh

marty joining for johnny be good but i'm just trying to enjoy some good old-fashioned rock and roll music and then who should get in my face but mean old principal strickland yes and he just he chose me out of nowhere he just rounded it like i had no prep to be talking to strickland and then he was just right in my face uncomfortably in my face but you post covet uncomfortably but you stood up to him you went you uh you approach as you approach goldie wilson with a lot of care you approached uh the principal strickickland as really combative. Thank you. You were like in a David Mamet play with him or something,

or the intensity of both performers. We haven't un-videoed. We heightened each other. You're like, I want rock and roll. You were fighting for rock and roll. For rock and roll. Right, and I appreciated that. Yes, I think I unlocked my inner Mike.

I was fighting for rock and roll. And I was a little embarrassed. I'll just get ahead of it by something that I ended up saying to him. When you're just in the moment and you're talking to an iconic movie character, you're not thinking about what you're saying. And I think he's saying that rock and roll

is for no goodniks. And I said, no, rock and roll is an amazing art form. Rock and roll is the new wave, is what I said to him. And then later I'm like, oh God, you're going to want to post that clip. Here I am saying rock and roll is the new wave. That's what I said to him. And then later, I'm like, oh, good. You're going to want to post that clip. Here I am saying, rock and roll is the new wave.

But I felt like that was your character. I felt like your character was trying to stay. Sure, sure. Not just me. You were being respectful to character. Yeah, yeah. I think so. Well, yeah, I guess I found a character in that moment who cares about the music and

who knows the good that rock and roll ends up doing over the years. You know, I've seen all the many tell that Strickland doesn't know about live aid. No, all the great tell how rock and roll has healed our planet. Hard, hard rock cafe, how much good it's done for the rainforest. I had to fight for all that.

Strickland has no idea what's coming. Well, we were told explicitly to, you know, these people don't know about Instagram. They don't know. They only have three. Yeah.

And there were good written jokes. I feel about, I don't remember any of them, but like, you know, to these people, tick tock is the sound of a clock, only have three. Yeah. And there were good written jokes. I feel about. I don't remember any of them, but like, you know, to these people, tick tock is the sound of a clock. Right?

Yeah. Now I will say that again, these are these small details that I'm like, who's minding the mint here? Because he was like, the shows that they're watching are, and they list these shows, but famously the show that is a part of back to the future is the

honeymooners. Oh, that's right the honeymoon right yeah yeah like he references to other shows and like but we pregnant why are we yeah why are we not referencing the thing that is a plot point of the show the movie said jack benny program i was trying to think like is the honeymooners like owned by cbs or like or not cbs like abc they aren't allowed is that is there something i don't know i think that might be Is the Honeymooners owned by CBS? Or not CBS, ABC? They aren't allowed. Is there something?

I don't know. I think that might be wrong. Certainly why there's no Lucy mentions. And if Jason had been with us, he would have said, yeah, we watch these things today. I watch the Dumont Network every night. How is this different? Exactly, yeah. So I wonder if that's...

I'm always curious about these events. Like if you would get the real shit of like yeah we couldn't say honey i know that and that i think that there is some sort of but again like i think you can say these words but i think you can say them but there's somebody who's probably yeah is my i think my googling will either help me discover that okay yes i was gonna say all right cbs does own it so i think you're that was a good guess that might be why but i was hoping that from Googling. Oh, no, but they did.

So when they made a deal with Star Trek, they should have made a deal to be allowed to say Honeymooners on the tram tour. Yeah, they should have thought of that. That should have been in there. That should have been in the contract. I will say the ending, like we said, was a great ending, a really fun way to see it done. Because obviously, look, if I have my druthers,

I would love to see a Waterworld kind of style car driving down that street. Obviously obviously you can't do that uh you know they were the fire in the street seemed like there was a lot of security around that fire in the street a lot of people walking around there like there's fire people out there like don't get anywhere near this fire yeah uh but i think we all agreed that the one big plus up would be to have a stunt person a la Tinkerbell from the top of the clock tower. Sure, yeah. Shoot down on a little. Much better than Tinkerbell.

That'd be amazing to watch a guy. And it would have still worked perfectly for the moment because it's such an iconic moment. And I feel like it would be, it would just go from roof to roof. Just go to, we don't even have to see land. Just go roof to roof. Oh, and then somebody, yes. And then somebody runs down and like more of a face actor comes down and does some stuff.

Yeah. Send a dummy down. I would love that. Yes, please. Dummies. They have those Spider-Man things now. Yeah, just do a simple stuntronic.

Just throw a stuntronic around. I mean, overall, I really enjoy, and getting, like getting to stay there for a while, to be immersed in it despite all these details

and of all of the like, because I didn't want to wait in the lines I mean, overall, I really enjoy it. And getting to stay there for a while, to be immersed in it, despite all these details. And of all of the like, because I didn't want to wait in the lines to like do the photo ops and everything. But that I ended up with, of all the things, that I have a detention slip written for me. It was pretty great. By Strickland.

I'm going to keep that in my wallet for as long as it'll hold. And then checking it later, like 3 p.m scott strickland and my wife was very impressed by that she was like what was this thing was this i was like let me show you how not dumb this was i have i have a strickland detention and that to me was the thing that like i love like the goldie wilson strickland moments were actually really fun because i feel like what i liked about that was the thing was alive around us yeah and i and i feel like

i would like to have seen even a little bit more of that like because the the main actors you could doc marty uh lorraine and biff they have to be at certain places at certain times right they have to they're telling a story that is on a loop a couple more side characters around for these interactions i think would it would even be like a little plus up just a little because it's like yeah because it's fun i think i talked to a lot of people who spent like a long time there like two hours right right it was a great that was a plus a plus i mean nitpicks but aside yeah if you could have gotten like a hamburger and a beer and hung out even like it would be even better.

But that's what I want from the Back to the Future template is what I want from almost all the immersive things. Star Wars, you want just a loop of all the movies character-wise going on in Galaxy's Edge. It doesn't matter that they don't take place in Batuu. I don't give a shit about it. It's just Luke. He's looking for Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. It doesn't matter. Look don't take place in batu doesn't give a shit about it yeah it's just luke he's looking for aunt peru and uncle owen look they've already decided the new movies decided that the same things happen over and over in star wars that's very good just have it happen here on batu that's totally fine we can we'll complain about it for 90 minutes because we got the shit

to fill in a podcast that's right doesn't mean we won't go over and over again and again the iconic location is a big deal i think what you want is just you i think it's really fulfilling we didn't get to interact with any characters in star trek right that they're moving you through yeah very good actors fun experience all for it aces this is really fun because i felt like they really wanted you to interact with the characters but because they're on a timeline it's hard so like i found i've when watching the marty character that we had who was great he doesn't have to be like yeah yeah okay but i got i got a thing i gotta get over you know very busy whereas strickland i got a second with the goal i feel like yeah yeah strickland has no no plot he had one cue to me, which I was really impressed.

Like, oh my God, he was just in my face. And now he's up here scolding Marty for playing a solo that was too darn loud. Yeah. Which is also not- It is really cleverly blocked out. Not from that part of the movie. Oh, that's true. It's a mess.

Yeah, mixed in there. He sort of, yeah, yeah. He has to be Huey Lewis and Strickland at the same time. It was fascinating because you know how like there's concepts that are tried to uh i've read about you know like if you were able to see space time you were able to remove yourself and see time and space all as one it would look like a single line it's almost like we were seeing back to the future removed from linear time oh yeah which i kind of found fascinating like you were just seeing all of it happening at once, which is kind of how our lives would look

if you could see them from a certain vantage point, especially with a time travel movie. I found that very fascinating, that like everything is like folding in on itself and we're seeing it and we can experience it in different ways and you could experience the same timeline in an hour differently than you did before. It was very, it's kind of a mind-boggling thing.

And the fact that they were even switching marty so you would get there and maybe see one loop end and a new marty begin is kind of crazy right because that's a multiversal yeah we would see a different scott who loves haunts you would see different things he's slightly different or it's almost exactly the same and it's like you just have a slightly different haircut who knows i i loved it i think it should expand a little bit if they bring that back as a kid, that would be the number one.

Like that, these are the rides that I wanted that I never got as a kid, right? Like I wanted, like if this was a thing, this should always be a thing.

And I, and I feel like if Universal was smart, they should keep this. As long as there's nothing shooting on that lot. And I think if the rumors are true

and that Little Hill Valleys are going up across the globe and Universal Parks all around, this is a strong rumored thing. And if they're testing

the waters for that, that like, because, you know, we can't do that ride again. We can't go to 2015 and have the video with Doc and Biff and so like,

to just, you know, section off an entire other part of Back to the Future and interact with 50s characters I know it's a cool idea. It's just by the way I VR I have done that back to the beach ride they have that ride in VR now you can do you can It's great you could out you can actually even put that give everybody headset put them in a room

Yeah, this is that you've made the strongest sell for me to get a headset. Oh, it's finally yeah You get it. I get to go on old rides with old outmoded technology yeah because it's like they all that stuff is built for that kind of perspective it's kind of great let's let's touch a little uh before we wrap up on dungeons dragons uh which was we were told was the the highlight of the night some people had really yeah ding that as being like that's the one to see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I felt, I don't know if it was just the quickly downed Isla Nublar IPAs

talking. We had to chug a beer because of the waiting in line. But what a nice thing of all the, it'd be my favorite beer to chug. And then like having that kind of hit and then be first of all told by you that maybe this, I think it's going to be scarce. And I told you, I'm betting it will be and it was not and then it was not so the relief

of that hitting right and then also i'm just like getting a little floaty while i'm being ushered from room to room where i don't understand what the hell is going on i sort of love it yeah i couldn't tell you anything that happened in dungeons and dragons no idea paying a hundred percent attention part of that was due to the lack of microphones uh some sound bleed happening from the other yes things oh yeah yes from room to room but i i truly don't care i liked that i didn't know i'm just like oh this now oh what this now i like i felt so dumb but i loved it there was one part where they said a bunch of stuff that somebody said okay your mission is clear and then three

things i didn't understand remotely well this is a so uh the i would say of all back to the future is it is a different beast right because back to future is literally a an area in universal studios that where they shot the movie you can't beat that but the props and stuff i think we thought little lackluster star trek pretty good but also you know moments where like okay it could maybe be better but it was definitely high quality generic enterprise good enterprise but generic enterprise right in certain parts this t to be great design like fully beautifully worked out thought out looked like they this is like they spent a lot of money on whatever this was yes i have a little bit of factoid that was told to me that vip guides

tell people when they're in this oh some of the trees in this experience are from the et adventure what are you talking about what what i don't know which one specifically true fan fest yeah i think i'm the biggest fan of those were the old trees i mean by the way i love those trees the way you walk yeah far as to smell the pine like that they still have the trees and that we were seeing them and we didn't even know why aren't they out somewhere all the time well get mommy out of there put it back in just put the trees in uh supposedly the trees sometimes are used in the horror nights mazes so apparently these are trees that are maybe often used Horror Nights mazes so apparently these are trees that are maybe often used

I love that these trees are used you've sent me straight to watching a ride through of this again just to see purely tree spotting thank you Scott thank you Mike now I will say thank you friend

this is again I am first of all I love this i love that we are catering i think that you know people are trying to figure out how to make theme parks uh as magical as they were for us and we went and continue to be but like try to get people in try to do new things i felt like each one of these experiences had something that i really, really liked, but it was almost like every experience had like two of three things, but it's like, Oh, but one would like this one,

we walk in and you are like in these different spots, your wizards, your sort, you know, you are Knights and you're a cleric clerics. I happen to be a cleric when you could be a wizard. We all got wizards. We all got wizards.

We were the only three in the wizard spot. Only three. But it played no part in our story, nor what we had to do, nor was it ever referenced again. It was like, and that was like the thing that I'm like, well, why go out of the way to say

that we're in the spot of the wizards and we're on our block, that's the wizard block. And then they keep on going, well, come with us. And you think, oh, okay, well, the wizards are going in this one room and the clerics are going in this other room. But no, it's just two doors that open to the same room.

But like, so some people on the left-hand side, some people are on the right and there's no difference because the performance is in the middle. And by the way, I love this. Don't know what happened in it but i felt like we're we're walking this line i'm like i wanna i you're so close to giving me all right all the wizards like i would even go for all the wizards go yay all the clerics are like give me just something all the robes in the house say hey because it's like i feel like you that's what i think was

missing in all of these things is just the slightest bit of audience participation and it didn't have to be big i'm not yeah i don't need you to give me a sword and we're not to fight things but just give me like give me a vocalization give me something like you did it your world opened up because you said something i was like i don't care you can just like remember your color and point to it. Sure. Yeah. Medieval time style. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's these nitpicks with all of these things, but don't you feel like this could all be super solved next year? You won.

This could be a hell of an event. I think it already is. I think it's off to a great start. Yes. I could just see a little bit more kinks get worked out, and then this becomes a you have to. There's a whole new way to see Universal Studios. I like a soft launch of this.

I imagine the first year of Horror Nights was similar. They're trying a lot of different stuff. It feels like they're very invested in it. I thought it was not done cheaply. I think they were like, let's figure it out. Let's build these experiences. Let's make this a fun night. We're celebrating and i think it's about like how do you balance out that many people making it unique and and beyond like how do you get it beyond the photo op and

maybe they're part of them which is like that's the biggest thing the biggest goal for them is photo ops and i think a lot of people in those cosplay outfits to be in picard's chair to be in the delorean with einstein like that's worth the price of admission and i've been to a lot of people in those cosplay outfits to be in Picard's chair, to be in the DeLorean with Einstein, like that's worth the price of admission. And I've been to a lot of these events with my kids, like not these events, but like Instagrammable museums to have those pictures. It's like,

oh, that's the best. It's like we hadn't like, it almost makes your night more memorable because like, oh, here's a million pictures of what we did. And I think a lot, we weren't doing that.

We were just kind of enjoying the rides and, or the experiences. I think they can make this i think this is a giant solid foot in the right direction and it will only get better my only real ding it's not the nitpicks it's the food the food needs to be more accessible like they they clearly were not ready for the amount we waited what conservatively 30 minutes to get a beer yeah and that wasn't one of the uh fun ones that was that was the regular isla nubar that i like and i thank you all for waiting in that line i dad really wanted that isla nubar by the way i was excited to have it but i'm also like why have one person manning that like that to me make i'll

constantly making like complicated tiki drinks and then go yeah that like that to me constantly making like complicated tiki drinks and then go yeah that was strangely understandable and it felt like that's what happened at the Dungeons and Dragons tavern which looked really cool and themed and they had all these really cool things but it's like there is something about

I don't know if this is like maybe it's like a they have to just have them ready to go. Like, and they, it's almost like pre-make these drinks and be like, you want that? Boom, boom.

And they're like, here, you want this? Cause it's like, it just felt like we were waiting for like, like Chipotle level weights. It's like, you know,

like, I'm like, it shouldn't be this, this shouldn't be this complicated. It's not like bespoke food. It's like, you know, like,

like, you know, or they should have more vendors out. Like, yeah, it felt like they were understaffed, which is odd. That's really the only nitpick of the night. And maybe they'll fix that on night two.

They must have been late. It might have been a random thing. Maybe they didn't know how many people would show up. I'm at least happy that there's a ton of great performers employed and doing a great job. That was the coolest thing. That's a good amount of staffing. And yeah, so many talented people did so great. I might have one more nitpick, which is the sheer volume of Billy Joel.

There was so much Billy Joel playing that it could have been. It could have been. Here's Star Trek. Here's Doc Brown. Here's Billy Joel. Yeah. Like so much was that a part of the night. I think they had like a half hour music loop and three of them were Billy Joel songs.

I heard We Didn't Start the Fire three separate times. When I was walking through city walk i even heard a billy my god and i'm a big billy joel fan i saw him here at the intuit dome and bring out axl rose oh right amazing wow wow axl rose saying welcome to the jungle i was like wow okay not even a billy yeah no i was like this is great that's fun i yes no no not even shade on billy in particular it's just a high volume of one particular thing then i went home as i put on like oh It's just a high volume of one particular thing. Then I went home. I put on like, oh, let me watch a live feed of what's going on up there now that I'm back here on my couch. Turn it on. Marilyn Monroe.

Straight to We Didn't Start the Fire Again. Why this? Why this so much? That's a great question. We also, we didn't talk about this, but I want to just mention it for a second. There was also a new part of the park experience that was going on where these like these coins that were in these cases. Oh, right. We were scanning. And if you scanned all four coins, you would get some sort of badge or a pass.

We opted out after we realized that once you scanned it, you had to like log into like a. You had to have an NBCUni.com account. Yeah. And that felt like something you do on have an nbc uni.com account yeah and that felt like something you have you do on day one of employment yeah it felt and it didn't feel like a fun thing to get a membership on it's hard yeah yeah no and it and it was just stations that was just a light a circle with a question mark and that's the fun medallion you got to look for like they're like like we don't even know what this is the guy who was speaking to us was like i what i like is i like when you're in these moments i i i'm so bummed i never got to

experience when frontierland became that day where they were doing immersive like uh you know people had sides and stuff like that and that was the idea like that might be what galaxy's glasses or galaxy edges but uh he was like yeah we're doing something really interesting we hid these all around the park now i did clock all of them It's hard to hide something that is a cylindrical post with a rotating glowing coin in it. It's not like hidden. It felt like the guy was having to sell something that even he didn't believe in. Because I was saying out loud, like, what is this thing? Why isn't it working?

I can explain that. Why? You see? And then within one sentence he was like catching the logic flaws himself and he was like you just tap with your phone and then i and i didn't he's well actually maybe just take a picture of it yeah that's gonna be a cleaner way to do it um and then we all walked away once we saw the additional login step um uh yeah so all right that's a note maybe whatever that is we don't need to do that. I like the idea. Just one Billy Joel song an hour instead of three every half hour.

These are all nitpicks for what I think overall is a fantastic thing. Do we all approve? Would we all do it again? Yes, 100%. I would want to do it now. I kind of feel like I'd like to go back again knowing what it was. I didn't know what it was going into it. I think where this thing needs to improve or not even prove is to your point keep the

theming going on throughout the park horror nights they got a million clowns running around chainsaws wherever you're going they know how to do this type of thing yeah i think it's just about getting that infrastructure and now horror nights may bring in a lot more money and they can afford a lot more people so that may be part of it but i would like it it it seems like there were areas where we're just like dead on theming billy joel songs and then fully star trek but even the star trek area was billy joel songs so it's like almost like can we can we isolate the islands can we oh that'd be nice you know because like then when we were down at the dungeons and dragons area it was that dj who was doing wedding music he did casper slide yep yeah so that like so they're like i just feel like there are these things it's like they're trying

to keep it a party vibe but it's also like we're nerds we're here we're in costume play me like some the star trek first contact score yeah give me that stuff but we want that we want to feel like we're in quark's bar, not hearing Sabrina Carpenter. The ZZ Top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can hear that back up at CityWalk, and we will. Yes. Although it was kind of special to get a mashup, as you noticed, of Party in the USA with Pitbull.

Yes, that was nice. I love that. That felt crafted for us. By the way, that's a real DJ, not a person. They're not playing track. That was a DJ who was up there doing his Yeah, yeah, I got the right idea, but then mash it up into that ZZ Top and it's seemingly like there was a Back to the Future restaurant that we did not see. And there's also a Back to the Future band called the Flux Capacitors. And they're just doing full music all the time.

Really cool, but they seem all separate. Like it's like an island away from the main attraction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, there's one more thing on the way out the door. We have not mentioned Xanathar. Xanathar, the gigantic puppet who shows, spoiler alert, although I'm sure you've seen it already. If you've watched a YouTube video about this,

Xanathar is a gigantic puppet in the Dungeons & Dragons experience. I think if Xanathar were in the park year round, he would become a new icon of Universal Studios. It's one of the best things in the park in any form. I was going to say, the money that, whatever they did for Dungeons & Dragons, and I thought it was really interesting

that they spent the most money, clearly the most money on Dungeons & Dragons. It's like, that's what I was so confused about. I was like, you created this awesome thing. The costumes there were great. The characters there were great. But just to take that away, and somebody, when I posted a picture of that,

somebody was like, oh, is that a Big big trouble in little china attraction oh yeah oh yeah it's a little like little shop of horrors yeah yeah i wonder why the money was spent on dungeons and dragons and i wonder if it's partly because that's a new property for them they did that movie there's a new series that i think is coming out that someone is behind. So maybe they're like, this might be something that we are investing more time and money into. Yeah, maybe. Whereas the rest is like nostalgia guys.

Yeah, maybe. And I feel like if it's going to be a little bit scattershot, it's little things that can tie it all together. It would all work for me if as you're leaving for the night, you meet one more Xanathar and he sings, Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, like, as you're leaving for the night, you meet one more Xanathar,

and he sings Harry, Truman, Doris Day, Regina, Johnny Rich. That's a dream. By the way, you have a very talented listenership. They should take any videos from the live streams and stuff and just put that together and let's get a million, just sync it together. Let's do it. Yes, that is a mashup I'd love to see even more than Miley Cyrus and Pitbull. But overall, you know, good reports, especially from the evening. A great time.

Great excuse to hang ball. It was wonderful. It was the best. I was thrilled to be there. I loved it. And I am excited for more of it. I'm excited if next year is three different properties or you continue to build out more properties. Alternate 85, different back to back.

Different uses of Square. And I guess there's, I'll say one more thing that I'm just like, where they should also just embrace, like the Simpsons, obviously, it's so beautiful, the Simpsons area. Like that should be also thriving with Simpsons characters during fan nights, right?

I mean, to a certain extent. Oh, and like deep cuts. I mean, that a certain extent. Oh, and like deep cuts. I mean, you don't. Yeah. Yeah. The one eyebrowed baby should be walking around. But maybe that's a Disney problem.

Oh yeah. Yeah. They're not going to free up money. I bet they would if it wasn't just for Disney. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bummer. That's a bummer because you are walking through these areas.

Well, maybe next year you have Fast and Furious. We'll get to bump into Kurt Russell's character. Yeah. It'll be a the corona dealership you know uh i don't know these movies well you have to tell us who you want to meet from fast and furious who's the dream who's the ultimate i mean look i think you would i mean for me it's be momoa with the you know going around being crazy uh you know i'd love to meet any of them

i mean you know they're big personnel big shoes to fill of course harder to cast because so muscular you know oh sure but they find you know hey Oh, sure. But they find, you know, hey, Waterworld's got a lot of jacked guys. They can, yeah, and save one jacked one to do the Doc Brown slide. Right.

And let's bring back some of that universal Old West stunt show in that night. Like, let's have somebody fall off the building from the Fast and Furious building. That's beautiful.

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, just don't go off the other side, which goes all the way down the entire mountain. Well, this was a blast to talk other side, which goes all the way down the entire mountain. Well, this was a blast to talk with you today. A blast to do it the other night. So much fun.

Paul Scher, you survived Podcast The Ride. Thanks for joining us again. Yes, narrowly escaped, narrowly survived. Let's exit through the gift shop. Anything you'd like to plug? No, that's it. My book, Joyful Recollections of Trauma, comes out May 6th.

And every week, for free on YouTube, you can check out Rob Hubel and I on a show called The Dark Web it's just oh yeah I've seen some clips of that really funny stuff on there yeah yeah as for us for three bonus episodes every month check out podcast the ride the second gate or get one more bonus episode on our VIP tier

club three you'll find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast the ride thanks today to Brendan Lucas and Kelly at Frog City Studios and shout out to Brendan's Lucas, and Kelly at Frog City Studios. And shout out to Brendan's cousin who's in the Flux Capacitors. I'm sorry we didn't get to see the band. We've heard good things. We briefly did.

We walked by them. Oh, we did. I watched some stuff online and I was like, that's pretty cool. It reminds me of like, and again, that's a great, like a great, smart, cool thing to do. Like it's not Billy Joel,

it's the Flux Capacitors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little less Billy, but just a little. do. Like, it's not Billy Joel. It's the Flux Capacitors. Let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little less Billy. But just a little. Just a little. Definitely keep some Billy. Okay. Forever Dog.

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